Daymond John

Daymond John was born in Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in Hollis, Queens, during the 1980s, when the neighborhood was a center of hip-hop culture. He learned to sew from his mother.⁠[1][2][3]

John attended Bayside High School’s co-op program, alternating classroom weeks with full-time work at First Boston. In an interview with the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity, he described strengths in mathematics and science alongside persistent reading and spelling difficulties. In adulthood, he recognized the effects of dyslexia and asked colleagues to help check documents.⁠[4]

In 1989, John began selling clothing for an urban market that major fashion brands had yet to address. Inspired by tie-top hats worn by rap groups in music videos, he used approximately $40 of material to make several dozen hats, sold them on a Queens street corner in one day and collected $800 in cash. A lack of capital forced the business to close and restart three times. With childhood friends J. Alexander Martin, Carl Brown and Keith Perrin, he expanded from hats to clothing. All kept their regular jobs; John worked as a waiter at Red Lobster.⁠[3][3][3][3][3]

In 1992, John founded FUBU, short for For Us By Us. In his spare time, he visited music-video sets and persuaded rappers to wear its clothes. By repeatedly lending out 10 shirts over approximately three years, he secured appearances in 30 to 40 videos. Rapper LL Cool J, who grew up on the same Queens street, also agreed to be photographed in a FUBU shirt, and John used the photograph to promote the brand.⁠[2][3][3][3][3]

FUBU subsequently obtained $400,000 in orders at a major Las Vegas fashion trade show but lacked the money to manufacture them. After 27 banks rejected loan applications, John and his mother took out a second mortgage on their Queens home. His partners moved in, turning the house into a temporary factory. His mother placed an advertisement in The New York Times seeking investors, and FUBU eventually reached an agreement with Samsung Textiles to finance production of its orders.⁠[3][3][3][3][3]

Under founder and CEO John, FUBU became a global fashion brand, with peak annual retail sales exceeding $350 million and cumulative worldwide product sales of more than $6 billion.⁠[5][5][1]

In March 2009, ABC ordered seven episodes of Shark Tank, an entrepreneurial investment reality program produced by Mark Burnett and modeled on the British show Dragons’ Den. Entrepreneurs pitched projects to five wealthy investors. John joined Robert HerjavecRobert HerjavecRobert Herjavec is a Croatian-born Canadian entrepreneur, investor and television personality. He founded BRAK Systems and Herjavec Group, became a longstanding Shark Tank investor, and serves as a Cyderes board member, advisor and investor.Open the full entry, Kevin Harrington, Barbara CorcoranBarbara CorcoranBarbara Corcoran is a real estate entrepreneur, investor, author and television personality. She founded The Corcoran Group and sold it to NRT in 2001. Known for her role on ABC’s Shark Tank, she also writes books, hosts a podcast and speaks publicly.Open the full entry and Kevin O’LearyKevin O’LearyKevin O’Leary is a Canadian entrepreneur, investor and television personality, publicly known as Mr. Wonderful. He founded software business SoftKey and became widely known through Dragons’ Den and Shark Tank. His activities span venture investment, financial products and consumer brands.Open the full entry as the original “sharks.” As of October 2026, he remained an investor on the program.⁠[6][6][6][7][8]

In 2015, the White House appointed John to the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship program, known as PAGE, with a focus on underserved entrepreneurs. He accompanied President Obama to Kenya and Cuba to promote entrepreneurship and small businesses. He also participated in Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative, which sought to mentor and support young men of color.⁠[1][8][1]

John disclosed on Good Morning America that he had been diagnosed with stage II thyroid cancer and undergone surgery to remove part of his thyroid. He said he felt well at the time and encouraged viewers to obtain health checks.⁠[9]

Powershift, written by John with Daniel Paisner, was published. The book discusses personal and business influence through reputation, negotiation and relationships.⁠[10]

Following George Floyd’s murder in 2020, John founded Black Entrepreneurs Day to respond to injustice and celebrate Black business owners. The event was held at New York’s Apollo Theater and streamed online, and it received four Webby Awards. The fourth event, on November 1, 2023, partnered with the NAACP to provide eight entrepreneurs with grants of $25,000 each.⁠[11][11][8][11][11][11]

John launched That Moment with Daymond John, a podcast about turning points in guests’ lives and careers. An episode dated May 2, 2023 featured chef Marcus Samuelsson discussing criticism and motivation.⁠[12][13]

During Shark Tank’s fifth season, John agreed to invest in Bubba’s Q, the barbecue business run by former NFLNFLThe NFL (National Football League) is a U.S. professional American football league of 32 clubs. Founded in 1920 as the APFA and renamed in 1922, it is organized into the AFC and NFC, with the season culminating in the Super Bowl.Open the full entry player Al “Bubba” Baker and his family. By 2017, its sales had grown from $154,000 before its appearance to $16 million. John said at the time that it could be his biggest deal.⁠[14][15][15][15][15]

In 2023, the Bakers publicly accused John and his partners of misleading them, trying to take over their business and depriving them of potential earnings. John responded in a video that the family had breached confidentiality obligations. In May, John and manufacturing partner Rastelli Foods Group sued the family. On July 21, New Jersey federal judge Robert Kugler converted an earlier temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction into a permanent injunction, finding that the Bakers had violated the non-disparagement provisions of a 2019 settlement. The order barred further public disparagement of John, his company DF Ventures and Rastelli Foods Group, and required removal of related social-media posts. John said the ruling vindicated his conduct; the Bakers declined to comment.⁠[14][14][14][14][14][14][14][14][14][14][14][14][14]

The official event page scheduled Black Entrepreneurs Day at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, continuing its focus on conversations with entrepreneurs and business experience.⁠[16]

A New Jersey federal court dismissed Al and Brittani Baker’s separate patent lawsuit against John and others without prejudice. It found that the patents had been assigned to an LLC, leaving the individual plaintiffs without standing, and declined jurisdiction over related state-law claims. The court allowed 30 days to amend and expressly did not decide the dispute’s merits.⁠[17]

AfroTech reported that John sued Buko LLC and other defendants on April 3, alleging unpaid referral commissions from pandemic-era personal protective equipment transactions. Defense attorney Christopher Frost denied that he was entitled to the claimed commissions and said savings had been passed to the state. These were competing litigation positions.⁠[18]

School of Hard KnocksSchool of Hard KnocksSchool of Hard Knocks is a business-interview media brand founded in 2021 by James Dumoulin, Jack Dumoulin and Joshua Smith, based in Austin, Texas. Its street interviews, long-form videos and podcast explore guests’ careers and business experiences. It also operates content services and the School of Mentors community.Open the full entry published a visit to Shark Tank featuring John and other investors listed in the video description. Original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv-GiWg_FPk (opens in a new window).⁠[19]

John’s The Power of Broke (2016) and Rise and Grind (2018) both became New York Times bestsellers, and the latter also appeared on The Wall Street Journal’s bestseller list. In March 2023, he published his first children’s book, Little Daymond Learns to Earn, introducing saving, spending, budgeting and borrowing. It subsequently became a New York Times bestseller.⁠[8][8][8]

John founded and serves as CEO of brand strategy and consulting company The Shark Group, and opened the Blueprint + co. coworking space in Manhattan. His roles include board positions with the Petco Foundation and UTSA Foundation and membership of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship’s national advisory council. His honors include Brandweek Marketer of the Year and Ernst & Young’s New York Entrepreneur of the Year. LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry named him a Top Voice in 2020.⁠[20][8][7][8][21][21][20][8]

DaymondJohn.com: Official website: https://daymondjohn.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[5]

The Shark Group: Official website: https://www.thesharkgroup.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[20]

His personal X account is @TheSharkDaymond: https://x.com/TheSharkDaymond (opens in a new window). His YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry channel is @TheSharkDaymond: https://www.youtube.com/@TheSharkDaymond (opens in a new window). His official website links to both accounts.⁠[22][23][24]